In recent years, a compound semiconductor light emitting device, especially a light emitting diode (LED) has been improved in light emitting efficiency and light output, and is used for a large size display, backlight, or the like. Since it can also be used for general lighting with further improvements in light output and efficiency, development aiming at the improvements has been conducted.
The LED is a small point light source much smaller than a conventional light source such as a fluorescent light, an incandescent lamp, or the like, and exhibits a particular light distribution having directivity larger than that of the conventional light source.
A structural body for controlling the light distribution has been conventionally formed on the outside of a LED chip to manage to obtain a light source, a display, a light emitting apparatus each having a desired light distribution property. For example, a structural body such as a resin lens, a reflecting mirror, a light diffusion plate, or the like are mounted on the outside to focus or diffuse light to provide various light sources, displays, and light emitting apparatuses each having the desired light distribution property. In this case, precise axial and positional alignment of the LED chip with the lens or the reflecting mirror is required in order to obtain the desired light distribution property, and therefore the problem has been encountered that variations in the light distribution property becomes large in terms of manufacturing.
In addition, even in the case where the axial and positional alignment of the structural body for the control of the light distribution property is precisely performed, since light emitted from a light emitting diode chip presents an irregular and ununiform light distribution which reflects a chip configuration, an electrode configuration, finished quality of an end portion, or the like, the problem of the large variations in the light distribution property has remained still unsolved.